by MBTA3247
danib62 wrote:I have no problem with the swab tests that the MBTA police are going to be doing. Remember that the goal of bag checks is not to find bombs but to serve as a deterent so someone wouldn't try to bring a bomb along in the first place. You don't need to to screen every bag to be a viable detterent. Checking random bags at random locations at random times serves this purpose fine.I don't think a system that lets the vast majority of bags go uninspected is much of a deterrent. All bin Laden has to do is send a handful of people to the same station at roughly the same time and he's guaranteed to get most or all of them into the subway undetected until it's too late to stop them.
When "doing something" is no more effective than doing nothing (except at making the terrorists laugh), you're better off finding another use for the money.
"The destination of this train is [BEEP BEEP]" -announcement on an Ashmont train.